Andy Kowalski "The story..well forget the stories..the stories make no sense at all..." (Carpenter)No doubt, Argento- lines are indeed not worth a hideous thought but I always tempt to mingle them endlessly with my own kind of criminal detective skills. I guess solely the storybook- catholic would watch a porn fer the the sake of having a blast with them dialog's alone, you'll get the picture...here I am, witnessing that not even the heavily armed films - under Argento's direction - have their Moments:***The serial killer and the police lady enchained to the rails, playing cards that virtually flip in slow- mo, the train in the background, nighttime.. with Simonetti's taking strangely over their heart- beat = BRILLIANT***...this is so damn fabulous and made in an artistic way of a kind...it'll stick in my head no matter how much I was smiling over them stories where all the neighbors seem guilty and no crime is seen too heinous...it will be simply overlooked (and adds a bit of charm, no less) by the way it's presented...Blatantly fascinating.I should add...it's in fact not a dynamite strike overall...nothing to get too excited but not a disappointment either...it is Argento trying to do Hitchcock but what we'll get is Van Gogh.

lastliberal One of the the great things about giallo is the blood and nudity. The serial killer takes the time to undress his victim before tossing her in the water, so we get to see everything.A little Saw and a little "CSI"/"Criminal Minds"; this film features a new gimmick. We'll play cards for the life of a girl.As the game progresses, the killer ups the ante by capturing the Police Commissioner's daughter and forcing the police to play for her life.As the police close in on the Card Player, he manages to get Anna Mari in his clutches and forces her to play a game for her life. It was something of a silly ending.

simonsayz-1 Boy, whatever happened to Dario Argento? He always was wacky, something that crept into all of his films, but during the prime of his career he was also innovative, stylish and unpredictable. Almost all observers think of Argento's golden era ranging from "Profondo Rosso" to "Opera", or from the mid-1970's to the late 1980's. When entering the 90's he suddenly seemed to have lost interest in the fancy set pieces and stylish flourishes that made his name. Which would be fine if the viewer were rewarded with other things, such as good acting, reasonable dialogue and a script that makes sense. These three things have largely been absent throughout Argento's career, but the aforementioned strengths always compensated.No such luck with "The Card Player." A specific style is completely missing, this film looks for the most part like a made-for-TV thriller. It also shows Argento's musical collaborator Simonetti erring again, this time by including some truly dreadful techno music (which almost destroys whatever tension the climax has). Set pieces are also absent, with even the more interesting moments like Remo's chase through the back streets coming of as mundane. Acting is typically mediocre-to-dreadful: The main actors are better than usual, also because both were not dubbed in post-production, but their roles are stock characters without much in the way of originality or interest. Character motivation and background is badly integrated or merely stated. Supporting actors are almost universally dreadful, hamming it up in the worst possible ways. Also absent is Argento's trademark gore, though this is far from the worst problem. Actually, Argento manages to stir up some dread without a splash of blood in a sequence in which a victim of the card player almost escapes which is caught by the web cam used for his transmission.The worst part of this film, however, is a really dull script with lots of implausible plot holes the size of Sicily and an equally dull murderer with a non-existent motive. After so many giallos it is kind of hard to expect fresh tricks, but Argento also makes a terrible job here to disguise the killer. I had the correct killer identified before the ten-minute mark. And this despite a last-minute script change that changed the killer as the first choice was seen as "too obvious". How this is possible is beyond me, as even the character they chose couldn't be more obvious if he had a sign "I'm the secret psychopathic killer" around his neck. Subsequently, any possible tension is completely absent. All that's left is to focus on the flaws which are too many to mention. While never truly dreadful, "The Card Player" is something worse: deadly dull.

Michael_Elliott Card Player, The (2004) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Police officer Anna Mari (Stefania Rocca) and British detective John Brennan (Liam Cunningham) are stalking a maniac card player in Dario Argento's latest film. This psychotic card player challenges the police to a game of online poker. If the police win then his victim goes free. If he wins he butchers the women live via a web cam. After the disaster known as The Phantom of the Opera Argento was forced to use smaller budgets for Sleepless and this film, which takes away that visual style we've come use to seeing from the director. That certainly takes away some of the charm. Also missing here is a good score. The score used is a Techno track, which sounds pretty lame. Another weak aspect is Rocca who is probably my least favorite Argento female character. Even with all that said the film manages a few excellent, classic Argento moments including a brilliant scene in the water, which I won't spoil here. Cunningham is also very good in his role and it's a shame he wasn't the lead here. The film has some good suspense scenes but the real drawback is that most of the action takes place over a computer screen. Trying to build action over a computer screen is certainly hard to do and Argento never really pulls it off. Most of the death scenes take place off screen, which might turn some off but it didn't hurt the film too much IMO. Sleepless is a much better film but this one here has enough merits for at least one viewing.